so I've been meaning to update for about a month now but the time just hasn't seemed right. I have far too much to go over, so I'm just gonna suck it up and do it haha. I would put this in a cut, but my cuts don't work. I hardly ever do mass updates though, so deal with it :)
in short, the last month has consisted of this:




my head is still spinning.
me and tegan arrived in sydney at 8.30am on a cold, wet, windy monday morning. we were dragging massive bags, we hardly knew where everything was and we had no backup if anything went wrong. it was what I've been wanting to do for so long. we got to central, found a backpacker's place to leave our bags til checkin, got on a train and went to circular quay. we did the tourist things; the bridge, the opera house, darling harbour, etc. I won't go into the details cause it's really just tourist things. but the whole time, I loved it. getting on and off trains and buses to see where we ended up, new places, knowing we were so far from home. it was the best. next day we did bondi before we got on the bus to find the roundhouse for chris. we got off a stop early and I freaked out at tegan, hard. we got on the next bus, found it, and took up our seats out the front. it's hard to describe his speaking but it was amazing, and it was a really good atmosphere in there (aside from the loud cheering coming from the next room in inappropriate moments). he spoke about some pretty hardcore stuff that can't have been easy to say, but he handled it really, really well. at the end nat stood up and said some amazing stuff about him, then a girl gave him a framed piece of paper that we'd all written on. I put cathy-lee on the phone to him afterwards, and when I doublechecked if he remembered me from adelaide (I couldn't tell he's so nice to everyone) he basically merrr'd at me and told me of course, "we went to that coffee place". well excuse me whilst I go lie on the floor for a while. I spoke to him about remnants and it got pretty intense for a while, especially as he was talking to me, skye and tegan, and not the whole room. then I mentioned that I had a reply from when I entered the remnants competition but I didn't get it in time I found out that out of 130 entries, he replied to 24, out of which 6 made it into the book. so, in short, I would've had a 1 in 4 chance. damnnn, right? he stayed in the roundhouse for so long we got directed outside, we stayed for a bit until we figured we should be getting back. nat told us how to get home (I'd put so much effort into organising getting there to see him getting back hadn't even really bothered me), he gave me one of his stupidly massive hugs, I thanked him and told him that coming out to sydney was entirely worth it, he thanked me, told me to look after myself and get my punk ass out of there. I'll be honest, there were a few tears waiting for the bus back to circular quay, but it was cool. I think I was a bit overwhelmed mainly. next morning we got up early, I flew into melbourne, spent a good night with hannah (I think we both really needed it; going out for tea followed by gossip girl), flew home the next morning and went to uni.
I got back with two major essays to do, my film to finish and an exam to prepare for. basically, it was a crazy busy time, and especially the week after dean's drum clinic I had to really buckle down and not have a life for a little while. I got everything in though and I'm feeling fairly okay about it. I'm pretty sure I did okay in my exam, and I got an email today telling me my short film's been chosen to be shown in a showing of I think maybe about 20 films (there's at least 100 people in our course, so I'm stoked with that). I might upload it here, but it's only fair I show it to leigh first, seeing as he's one of my two subjects in it.
in between the mass of study was deano's drum clinic. I really had no idea what to expect, it's not that often that something like this happens, but it was incredible. we got to q at about 10, he came at probably around 4. he came out to see us (way to give me a heartattack man) and started casually telling us that he hoped we wouldn't be let down, and that he was playing six good charlotte songs and two the used (others as well, ben harper, morrissey and missy higgins). I didn't realise he'd be playing gc songs at all, let alone the used. he took photos with us, and a kid about 7 or something arrived at that time carrying drumsticks. dean asked if he was hear for the drum clinic, the kid said yes and dean was like "well that's me" and shook his hand, it was SO cute. we waited around til 7 and took our seats (front row and centre). he played us dance floor anthem, misery, the anthem, lifestyles, keep your hands off my girl and I'm pretty sure another but I'm having a mental blank of the worst kind right now? he also did the ripper, and the bird and the worm was freaking insane. he gave some pretty indepth, well thought out answers to all our questions and gave us as much time as he possibly could. we saw him off, caught the bus back to cathy-lee's, uploaded photos, got three hours sleep and got up at 5.30am to go to the airport. we saw him off there too, got more photos and went home. there is a LOT I'm missing out on here, but to be honest I'm not sure how to write it all up.
similarly, I'm not sure how to write up mest, but to put it shortly it was one of the best shows I've ever been to in my life. we got there at 11.30ish, there was no lineup all day. seriously, people only started arriving about half an hour before the show, when does that even happen? it was a long day, with a lot of false alarms when it came to them arriving. they didn't arrive til about 6.-6.30, and I freaked out, hard. I didn't even know I'd be that bad. I was shaking so bad, and I'm so happy I was with cathy-lee because if I wasn't all I would've done is freaked out from a distance. she dragged me over there, I asked for a photo with tony and he called lil rich over to get in it (like I wasn't losing my mind enough?). he was really sick, and considering I could hardly form two words around him he was really good to me. when we let in we claimed our barrier spots and sat through the four support bands (yes, four. ugh). I can't even describe how good mest were. especially considering tony had the flu, it was insane. it was everything I love about live music. the music was amazing, it was fun, the crowd was pretty good. my camera got killed at the end, I bought a small cheap(ish) one before I left for sydney, basically my gig camera so I don't have to drag my big one around everywhere. a crowd surfer went over me in cadillac and broke the strap round my wrist so my camera fell to the ground. I can still take photos, I just can't see anything on the screen at all, and it's probably not worth fixing. mum reckons it might be covered in house insurance, but to be honest, I don't care. gripping cathy-lee's hand and screaming out the lyrics to jaded and rooftops was worth more than any camera. after their set I ran to the station (I made the last train with less than a minute to spare but no way was I missing cadillac) came home, slept and went to work saturday afternoon.
finally, saturday night I went to town with some great friends for britt's 19th. it's funny how I can function in entirely different settings. I was so sure I'd hate going out to town, because it's just not my thing. and in lots of ways it isn't. I never feel like I'm dressed quite right, I don't drink much at all and dancing does not come naturally to me at all. but tha said it was a really good night, mainly because of the people I was with. I danced stupidly and normally and had fun doing both, I laughed at funny drunks, and I didn't have to worry about work the next day because I'd booked it off. I think my favourite parts were sitting outside shotz with tegan talking about summoning invisible shelter, the excitement of britt's requested birthday song coming on and me and leigh being complete giggling idiots on the bus home, for the whole way (all hour and a half of it, basically). we got home at 6am, it was light, we were half dead (me especially considering mest the night before) but it was a really good end to a crazy month.
now I have holidays until march. I'm gonna carry on with the gym (I had a checkup kind of session there the other week, I found out I've started to lose weight, I'm in a fairly healthy range and to be honest I think my body's worse in my head than reality), work all the hours I can get to pay for bands coming next year (placebo announced a melbourne sideshow. I'm stoked on this, because it means I might be able to actually relax at soundwave because I'll have already seen them do their own set), and hopefully move rooms. I'm moving into my sister's old room cause it's bigger and I need mroe wallspace, but we just found out our landlords are selling their businesses (they own two music stores, a grocery store and about 3 rentals) so we're waiting to see what's happening with the houses and there's no point in me moving rooms if I'll have to take everything off the walls so they can sell the house. I see green day in less than two weeks. cathy-lee's home from the mest tour today, I'm looking forward to three months of hangouts. I'm trying to find the right balance where I get to spend time with all my friends (my friends don't all mix and get along), and I think I'm getting there. a year ago today I was announced dux of the school, the day before formal and graduation. funny how things work out. some things change, some things don't.